What Happens When You Leave a Real Gun in a Roomful of Kids? Let’s Watch. [VIDEO]

Kids know what to do when they see a gun, right? They know that they shouldn't touch it, shouldn't play with it, and should immediately find an adult, right?

Not so fast.

A recent experiment on gun safety yielded alarming results. A TV station in Springfield, Illinois and the local police agency put eight children in a roomful of toys, and told them they were part of a toy-testing panel. Also in the room, an unloaded, disarmed gun.

Parents were horrified as they watched the children on monitors.

"I was surprised at how she pointed it into herself, and it just made me nervous," mother Amy Cowhitch told the TV station. "I mean what if that really was a situation where she was at a friend's house and that happened."

Mother Tosha McGatherly was taken aback by her son's reaction to the weapon.

"Afterwards I asked him 'did that scare you? It scared me,'" McGlaterly said. "He said 'No, it wasn't loaded.' I said, 'How do you know?' He said, 'Because someone pulled the trigger.'"

An officer conducting the experiment said it's important to  remind parents to talk to their kids about guns, whether they own them or not.